...from the light to the dark, they will come
the angel of rage their guide against their brethern
the beast shall take hold and be their judge
their cloak and their downfall
friendship fails in the face of the dark ones
found inscribed in a tomb, server island
"Snow? In the middle of June?"
The sheer shock and astonishment in Tai's voice broke Kodi's concentration. In annoyance, she looked up from her novel and around to where a small group of her fellow campers sat eating from a picnic basket. It figured. She had been completely immersed in the plot line when Tai's incredulous shout had caught her attention. The brown-haired boy was staring up at the sky with an expression of wonder on his face, mouth agape like a fish out of water. Kodi shook her head. "Boys," she said in disgust. "They let their imaginations run wild. How can it be snowing? It's almost thirty degrees out here!" She smiled scornfully and was about to return her gaze to the book in her lap when she felt the first icy flake kiss her cheek.
She froze, then lowered the book back into her lap. As she slowly raised her eyes to the sky, she heard delighted laughter rise from the throats of some of the other kids at the lakeside camp. Kodi's topaz eyes blinked several times before she could comprehend what she was seeing. Soft white flakes drifted down from a clear blue sky, sparkling with a myriad of tiny rainbows in the bright sunlight to land on the grass, the trees, the lakeshore and the ecstatic campers who rarely saw pure white snow in the city.
"But there aren't even any clouds in the sky," she whispered faintly, leaning back against the rough bark of the tree, trying to understand. The trunk shuddered suddenly, and Kodi involuntarily glanced up to see Matt leaning there, arms crossed, staring upwards into the snow. "Hey Trouble. What's up?"
"Pretty strange weather we're having," he commented almost absently.
"Uh-huh. Where did the others go?"
A faintly scornful smile curved his lips, and he slid down the trunk to sit beside Kodi, his knee touching hers. "Scattered. Joe decided he didn't want to freeze to death, and Mimi didn't want to get her hair wet. Izzy's computer managed to get one flake on it and he freaked. Something about electronics and water based particles..." He shook his head. "I didn't pretend to understand what he was saying. Sora and Tai took off to the lake, something about snowball soccer."
He hadn't mentioned his brother, but then, that was like him. She hesitated before inquiring about his younger sibling; knowing him as well as she did, she knew he did love his brother, but because his mother had custody of TK and his father custody of him, he rarely saw TK and didn't know how to deal with him. "Where did TK go?"
Matt shrugged. "He's somewhere," he said indifferently.
Kodi let it lie, and a comfortable silence fell between them. She reached into her pocket and fingered the small gift she had picked up from the gift store in town the last trip. Before she could decide otherwise, she pulled out the small box and passed it to Matt.
He looked surprised as he took it. "What's this for?" he asked.
"Just open it," she mock-growled, watching as he pried up the lid to reveal a small silver harmonica. "I remember you always told me you wanted one of those things," she said hesitantly, doubt flaring in her voice. "I wasn't sure..."
He surprised her with a real smile. "It's...it's great, Kodi," he murmured, then blew a few soft notes into the instrument. "I have always wanted one of these." He took her hand and smiled into her eyes. "Thank you."
Kodi heard her heartbeat thud throughout her body
At that moment, Tai ran by, ducked a snowball and tossed one back at Sora, who stood some distance away, laughing and brushing snow out of her hair. Deftly, he avoided tripping over Kodi's feet, which he noticed at the last minute, but went sprawling over Matt's. With a discordant squawk, the harmonica went flying from Matt's hands to land in the light snowfall several feet away. Rolling back to his feet, Tai laughed sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. "Sorry Matt, Kodi. I didn't see you guys there."
"Obviously," Kodi replied dryly, setting her book in Matt's lap and rising. "But it's okay. No harm, no foul. See?" She raised her arms and turned slowly. "No damage." From the corner of her eye, she noticed Matt's jaw clenching, and a warning bell rang in her head. "Anyways, I'd better get that before it rusts."
"Huh?" Tai looked confused unti Kodi trotted to the small indentation that marked where the harmonica had sunk. Grimacing as she inserted her hand into the snow, she rooted around until her hand touched a cold, hard object. She frowned. It didn't feel like a harmonica, and as she drew it from the snow, it certainly didn't look like a harmonica. Curiously, she studied it. It was sky blue and white, round and just a little smaller than her palm, with a belt clip on the back and a blank screen on the front. "Hmm. I guess some kid lost their Tamagotchi," she said thoughtfully, then shrugged and clipped it onto her jeans. "I guess I'll give it into the lost and found."
She plunged her hand back into the snow and quickly found Matt's new harmonica. She walked back to the tree, brushing residual water from the metal before handing it back to Matt, then grinned at Tai. "Now, try not to knock it out of his hand again, okay Taichi?" she said teasingly. "It is new after all."
Tai looked sheepish again. "I'm sorry, Koden," he apologized. "I guess I'm just a klutz, ne?"
A snowball erupted in his face. Kodi looked at Matt in shock. He was grinning smugly and dusting snow off his gloves. "I guess you are, Tai," he agreed. "You can't even stay out of the way of a single snowball. Tsk tsk tsk."
A competitive gleam lit in Tai's eyes then, and he looked over at Kodi. "Wanna be on my team?" he asked enticingly. Kodi laughingly backed out of the way. "No way," she replied, shaking her hands. "I'm staying out of this one."
"Your loss," he responded, and bent to scoop up a handful of snow to form into a sphere. His grin faded after a moment of rolling, and he blinked. "Huh? What's this?" He picked a small, rounded item from the snowball in his hand and held it aloft. Kodi did a double take. Save only for the colors, it was identical to the one she had found only a few moments ago.
"Dunno," she said, reaching to her side to unclip the device. "But I found one too, just back there."
"That makes three of us," Matt admitted, and extended his hand so the other two could see the third lying in his palm.
Kodi frowned. Something about this wasn't quite right, but she couldn't say what. "I figured some kid lost their virtual pet," she said uncertainly, looking down at the thing. "Now I'm not so sure."
Matt looked thoughtful, but whatever he was about to say, if anything, was interrupted by a sudden flash of white light and a stomach-turning lurch of movement.
*** ***
Pain. She knew blinding, agonizing pain. One moment, she had been...where? Falling through a world of softness, a realm of white feathers falling like snow in June. The light had been beckoning her on, urging her to come to her destiny. Something furry had touched her hand, and a chain had been slipped over her head. And then...and then, the darkness had hit her.
Ripped, yanked....viciously torn away from the light, sent spinning into this universe of agony, this universe of hate and anger and fear. A voiceless scream tore from her throat, to echo unanswered in the everlasting night. Who was she? The pain had driven everything from her mind. Who was she?
"Angel," a voice purred in her ear. "You are Dark Angel."
"Dark Angel," she repeated to herself, still spinning endlessly in the voided-out universe. She closed her eyes and said the name again. It felt odd, like it belonged to her and yet it didn't. Angel, Dark Angel. Right, and wrong.
"Open your eyes, Angel," that same voice said worriedly. "You're here now, you're fine. We're together, as it was meant to be."
"Yes," she murmured, and the pain began to ebb. The void swirled and became a universe of stars which gradually receded themselves until they were no more than pinpoints above treetops. With a start, she realized she was lying sprawled on grass, staring up at the night sky. A velvety hand helped her to sit up, and she leaned back against something sturdy, pressing one hand against her face. "Where am I?" she groaned.
"You're here, with me," the voice said soothingly from the vicinity of her chest. She opened her eyes and met the unblinking amber gaze of a small cat-like creature. Her first instinct was to recoil from the unnatural thing, but she quelled it ruthlessly. She was not one to run away from things, somehow she knew that. Whatever this was, she would deal with it.
"Who...who are you?" she asked, her voice coming out disgustingly weak. Her hand flew to her head again where she could feel the beginnings of a migraine headache starting. "How did I get here? And who am I?"
The cat-thing's eyes gleamed up hopefully at her. "I'm Pumamon, your partner," she -- somehow Angel knew the thing was a female -- said nervously. "We both got here at the same time; you were called at the same time I was. I'm not exactly sure where here is exactly, but don't worry. I'll protect you."
"You'll protect me and you don't know where we are?" Like the weakness, she couldn't quite stop the hysteria.
Pumamon rumbled in feline laughter. "I wouldn't be able to point it out on a map," she explained, "but I know we're still in the digital world. Very few things change from one place to another for a digimon."
The headache began to deepen, and Angel rubbed her head futilely, wishing for some painkillers. "Digimon? The digital world?" She shook her head in confusion. "I'm afraid I don't understand."
Suddenly a low voice slid out of the darkness. "That's understandable," it said, and a tall, dark, mask-wearing man emerged from a patch of shadow underneath a copse of trees. "Something happened to you in transit, and you lost your memory. But don't worry, child. It'll return in time. You aren't the only one to arrive in this state."
Pound pound pound. "I'm sorry," Angel said miserably. "I'm afraid I don't understand any of this, who you are, who this is," here she indicated Pumamon, "or where I am. Plus my head is killing me."
"You poor dear." Sympathy oozed from the tall man like oil. He flared his cloak and swept a low bow. "I am Myotismon, your humble servant. You are Dark Angel, the leader of the Digidark, the sworn protectors of this land from the horrible acts of the Digidestined." He paused, and his smile revealled vampire fangs. "But perhaps you'd like to rest, perhaps regain some of your memory?"
Angel hesitated only an instant, staring up at Myotismon before rising to her feet and indicating to Pumamon that she should follow along. "Yes," the girl murmured. "That might be best after all."
*** ***
